As part of the outfitting of my new shop, I’m going to need a good quantity of handscrew clamps. Commercial prices vary, from top of the line Dubuque / Jorgensen’s for over twenty bucks each to the inexpensive imports for 4 - 8 bucks each.
In researching the clamp options, I discovered that kits are available for making your own handscrews, for around half the price of the clamps themselves. Not only are inexpensive import kits available, but also high quality US manufacture kits (same as used by Jorgensen) are available, again for about half the price of the complete clamp.
That got me to thinking…. would it be of interest to fellow North Carolina Woodworker members to get together one weekend to manufacture a slew of clamps for ourselves? If so, we could make it an official North Carolina Woodworker event and cook up some BBQ!
If several folks are interested in dedicating a day to the effort, we could probably divvy up the workload and have someone cutting out the blanks to length, someone sanding the sides on the WBS, someone else using the table saw to cut the slope on the nose of the jaws, someone using the drill press to drill the holes for the steel pivoting nuts, someone else doing the finish sanding, edge rounding, etc. Some of these tasks could be done by the same person, but you get the idea.
Although the traditional material for making clamps is hard maple (which is not commonly found near me), I do have some really nice and large hickory logs that could be quartersawn (and dried) into slabs suitable for clamps. For that matter, if any participants had some of their own lumber it could also be utilized (wouldn’t it be nice to have some Claro walnut handscrews???)
I could also make my shop available for the group to use for the manufacturing effort.
We could put the hickory scraps to good use in the smoker, and have a nice lunch being cooked while we “suffered our way through” a good day woodworking!
Here are some links to some hardware kits; hopefully we may be able to find some of equal or better quality for a better price:
http://woodworker.com/8-handscrew-kit-mssu-125-055.asp
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Handscrew-Kit-4-/H2849 (scroll down to see all of their available kits)
(Perhaps Rick DeNardo at The Moulding Source may be able to get us a good group rate on some Shop Fox handscrew kits...)
Other options include purchasing wooden dowel rods and using a threading tool to make wood screws instead of buying metal ones.
It will take me a few months to get the hickory ready, so this may be a good January or February project, but I thought that I’d toss out the idea to see if anybody would be interested in participating. Please respond to this thread and let me know if you might be interested in participating. Thanks!
Scott
UPDATE ON 9/29/09
For those who will be providing their own blanks for manufacturing their handscrew clamps, below are the recommended finished sizes of the blanks, courtesy of Jorgensen Clamps. Keep in mind that these are recommended finished sizes, so if you have rough stock it will need to be a bit oversized. Also, although the height of the clamp can probably vary a bit, the width will need to remain close to what's recommended.
Jim (Froglips) has been working on the sign-up form, which will allow y'all to enter the sizes and types of clamps that you're interested in making. It should be available within the next day or so.
More to come...
Scott
In researching the clamp options, I discovered that kits are available for making your own handscrews, for around half the price of the clamps themselves. Not only are inexpensive import kits available, but also high quality US manufacture kits (same as used by Jorgensen) are available, again for about half the price of the complete clamp.
That got me to thinking…. would it be of interest to fellow North Carolina Woodworker members to get together one weekend to manufacture a slew of clamps for ourselves? If so, we could make it an official North Carolina Woodworker event and cook up some BBQ!
If several folks are interested in dedicating a day to the effort, we could probably divvy up the workload and have someone cutting out the blanks to length, someone sanding the sides on the WBS, someone else using the table saw to cut the slope on the nose of the jaws, someone using the drill press to drill the holes for the steel pivoting nuts, someone else doing the finish sanding, edge rounding, etc. Some of these tasks could be done by the same person, but you get the idea.
Although the traditional material for making clamps is hard maple (which is not commonly found near me), I do have some really nice and large hickory logs that could be quartersawn (and dried) into slabs suitable for clamps. For that matter, if any participants had some of their own lumber it could also be utilized (wouldn’t it be nice to have some Claro walnut handscrews???)
I could also make my shop available for the group to use for the manufacturing effort.
We could put the hickory scraps to good use in the smoker, and have a nice lunch being cooked while we “suffered our way through” a good day woodworking!
Here are some links to some hardware kits; hopefully we may be able to find some of equal or better quality for a better price:
http://woodworker.com/8-handscrew-kit-mssu-125-055.asp
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Handscrew-Kit-4-/H2849 (scroll down to see all of their available kits)
(Perhaps Rick DeNardo at The Moulding Source may be able to get us a good group rate on some Shop Fox handscrew kits...)
Other options include purchasing wooden dowel rods and using a threading tool to make wood screws instead of buying metal ones.
It will take me a few months to get the hickory ready, so this may be a good January or February project, but I thought that I’d toss out the idea to see if anybody would be interested in participating. Please respond to this thread and let me know if you might be interested in participating. Thanks!
Scott
UPDATE ON 9/29/09
For those who will be providing their own blanks for manufacturing their handscrew clamps, below are the recommended finished sizes of the blanks, courtesy of Jorgensen Clamps. Keep in mind that these are recommended finished sizes, so if you have rough stock it will need to be a bit oversized. Also, although the height of the clamp can probably vary a bit, the width will need to remain close to what's recommended.
Jim (Froglips) has been working on the sign-up form, which will allow y'all to enter the sizes and types of clamps that you're interested in making. It should be available within the next day or so.
More to come...
Scott
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